Life of Pi - Week #1

Greetings!

First of all, as you read this I am on my way to Philadelphia to help out with some family health emergencies. Both my mother and niece are in challenging situations, and now that I've finished grading finals I will be out there for the rest of the week.

I know this makes for a not-so-fun way of kicking off the second semester of your senior year in English, but you know I'll make it up to you.  I also know my 7th period class might have heard about the wandering around the school and telling stories that my 1st and 6th period classes did - we'll get to that next week!

Also, I had planned to have individual conferences with you during the reading time to discuss your final and first semester grades. Although they will soon be posted, I still plan to have those conversations next week.

So the next few days will look like this:

• 1st period
• Wed. - Introduce the novel; read author's note; HW: Ch. 1-5
• Thu. - Reading day; HW: Ch. 6-14
• 6th period
• Thu. - Introduce the novel; read author's note; HW: Ch. 1-5
• Fri. - Reading day; HW: Ch. 6-14
• 7th period
• Wed. - Introduce the novel; read author's note; HW: Ch. 1-5
• Thu. - Reading day; HW: Ch. 6-14
• Fri. - Reading / work day

The sub will have more details for you.  Thanks - have a great week!

Second Semester Seniors!!

Greetings and welcome to second semester of senior year!  Woohoo!

I hope finals week went well, and that you were able to chill out this past weekend.  As for the final for this class, as a whole they were excellent. I spent many days reading through your ideas, interpretations, commentary, and connections. I've very proud of the work you've done.  The grades for individual assignments are in turnitin.com. If you'd like to meet to discuss any part of your semester grade, or any of the individual essays, we will have time to do that this week.

Today I am spending the day with the English department course fair, telling future students about their choices for English classes. I'm sorry I can't be there with you.

Here is the plan for today:

1. Make sure you are signed up to receive e-mails from this blog - it is there in the upper right-hand corner. We will be using the blog quite a bit this semester, especially as we get to fourth quarter.
2. You need to purchase our next book, Life of Pi, by Wednesday (1st period) or Thursday (6th and 7th period). You will need it during class on that day.
3. Remember how I like to post videos on the blog? At first I thought I'd change these each day, but I wasn't able to get to it that often. If you'd like, take a minute to check out the video I just posted about these amazing moving sculptures.
4. Speaking of videos, many people love watching viral videos, especially of animals. I've even posted a few (pandas, hamsters).
1. Spend some time surfing through youtube and elsewhere on the internet to find a fun video to share with the class - it has to be somehow related to animals, and obviously must be appropriate to show in school.  Copy the URL - you'll need it to complete the next step.
5. Complete this questionnaire - it is a chance for us to catch up a little bit on things related to class and beyond.
1. Here is a link to the questionnaire (in case you didn't click above)

Final Exam

Here is a link to the first semester final exam

Here is a link to the rubric for the final exam


Some people have asked for models to read. Here are three for you to check out, but I do want to clarify a few things first:

• The work you are turning in to me is to be double-spaced. The spacing on some of the samples is not.
• Some of these samples are longer than the assigned length of four pages. I'd like you to pay attention to the ways in which these writers explore and express their ideas, even though they go on a bit longer than assigned. Remember that a longer essay doesn't mean it is better!

Here is a link to an example of a final that received an "A"

Here is a link to another example of an "A" final

Here is a link to an example of a final that received a "B"

Things Fall Apart - Changes

Yesterday you worked in small groups to explore chapters 13-17, focusing on these questions:

• What things change?
• What things stay the same?
• Why?

In a book called Things Fall Apart, we can sense that there will be changes, and our work this week will focus on both why and how these happen.

Today we wrote about internally vs. externally caused changes - those we initiate vs. those done to us.  In the same groups as yesterday you looked for examples of these changes, specifically in terms of how the missionaries are influencing / changing the Ibo.

African Masks!

In the days before winter break we made African masks in class. Here are pictures celebrating your creativity and hard work!